CLEVELAND (AP) – Hours before a 12-year-old boy was fatally shot by a Cleveland police officer, the friend who had loaned Tamir Rice a pellet gun warned him to be careful because it looked real.
Documents released Saturday by the prosecutor handling the racially charged case detail the moments before the brief, deadly encounter – and how the responding officers seemed almost shell-shocked as the boy lay bleeding outside a rec center.
The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department turned over its investigation to the county prosecutor’s office on June 3. Prosecutor Tim McGinty has said the case, as with all police-involved shootings, will be taken to grand jury to determine whether criminal charges should be filed against the officer who shot Tamir, rookie patrolman Timothy Loehmann, or his partner, Frank Garmback.
McGinty said he decided to release the investigative file now in the interests of transparency.
“If we wait years for all litigation to be completed before the citizens are allowed to know what actually happened, we will have squandered our best opportunity to institute needed changes in use of force policy, police training and leadership,” McGinty said.